One of the problems causing dart bounce-out or fall-out occurs when a subsequently thrown dart strikes the flight and/or flight attachment means of a dart which is already stuck in the dart board, thereby stopping or deflecting the trajectory of said subsequent dart and reducing its momentum. This increases the probability that it will fail to hit the intended target or fail to stick in the dart board. If a bounce-out or fall-out occurs, then no score is produced. In addition, the following dart(s), by striking the flight of a prior thrown dart, may unseat the prior thrown dart from the dart board causing the loss of whatever score it has produced. To further complicate the problem, such occurrences are more apt to happen when the subsequently thrown dart(s) target is in close proximity to the previously thrown dart(s) already positioned on the dart board. When the limited area in question is a high point scoring area, the results can be very detrimental to the dart thrower and his team.
Many proposals have been made in the prior art to obviate the problems caused by protruding flight attachment means and fixed flights when struck by following darts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,915 issued to Walter Edward Bottelsen is directed to a breakaway dart, viz., one whose flight shaft and flight fall away from the dart body when the dart strikes the dart board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,113 issued to Walter M. Sheldon, Jr. teaches the use of a cluster of four pins having elliptical rounded heads in a flight assembly with the leading end of the pins secured in a hole in the dart fletching body and maintained in close tangential juxtaposition by means of a heat shrinkable tube which encases the leading end of said pins from the front end of the dart.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,420 issued to Martin G. Ollis, et al, is directed to a dart having a shaft to carry the flight with a slot opening diametrically through the thickness of the shaft so that the flight can be deformed to a flat condition and pushed laterally through the slot. The extreme end of the shaft behind the flight is closed and pointed or rounded to provide a deflection surface in the event of contact by a further (following) dart.
British Pat. No. 534,289 issued to Farrington, et al, discloses a dart whose flight does not rotate when thrown, but can rotate when struck by a following dart. Thus the flight of a dart adhering to a dart board is revolvable about the pin f so that the flight has the capacity to turn and so to "give" if struck by other darts. The Farrington et al dart is stated by the patentees to be not apt to become torn.
British Pat. No. 589,208 issued to Frederick Alfred Richardson, et al, teaches use of a dart whose flight vanes 8 rotate relative to serrated shaft 2 via rotatable hub 6 mounted on pin 7.
British Pat. No. 1,488,373 issued to Mary Louise Frost, et al, is directed to a dart deflector for attachment to a dart. The deflector is comprised of an elongate body having a plurality of slots extending longitudinally from one end thereof, each slot being arranged such as in use it can accommodate a wing of a dart flight. The other end of the body has a tapered portion and the deflector is attachable to the dart solely by means of an engagement between the flight of the dart and portions of said elongate body forming the sides of said slots. When so engaged, the deflector is located axially to the flight of the dart so that in use when the dart has pierced a dart board, the point of a following dart approaching said dart in an axial or a substantially axial direction is deflected by the tapered portion of said dart deflector away from said dart. The dart flight comprises two separate flight portions each of which has a single fold along the longitudinal axis thereof. A complete dart flight is formed by locating two such dart flight portions in the longitudinally extending slots in the shaft of the dart.
British Pat. No. 1,508,075 issued to Robert Perkins, et al, discloses a rotatable coaxial stud shaft for dart carrier fins (flight) and rotates on being struck by a following dart.
Published British Patent Application No. GB 2007989A by applicant/inventor, Albert Thomas Baker, is directed to end formation 15 for a dart flight 17 wherein said rear end formation forms an integral structure with a plurality of forwardly directed limbs 16. Rear end formation 15 is rearwardly tapered or pointed to deflect subsequently thrown darts.
Published British Patent Application No. GB 206 4967A of inventor Benjamin Charles Drake discloses a two part dart stem having a rear interfitting part 22 which carries the dart flight and is freely rotatable in relation to front part 20. Part 22 carries the flight and is a portion of the flight assembly which is secured to the metal barrel 12 via threaded bore 14.